New fee rates will not apply to sitting senior counsel

Senior counsel who chair tribunals and official inquiries will continue to be paid on a daily basis and will not be affected by new Government proposals aimed at curbing the cost of these investigations.

The Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy announced in July that the Government was to introduce a new structure of annual payments for lawyers working at tribunals.

Most of the tribunals and inquiries currently underway are chaired by serving or retired judges. However, some investigations such as the inquiry into the retention of organs of dead patients by hospitals are chaired by senior counsel. The Department of Finance said last night that the new annual fee structure will not apply to senior counsel who are chairing inquiries.

The Department of Health told The Irish Times that Ms Anne Dunne, the senior counsel who is chairing the organ inquiry is currently being paid a daily rate of €2,304 including VAT.

Meanwhile, a Government spokeswoman said last night that discussions were still continuing between the Attorney General's office and the various tribunal chairs about a date for the introduction of the new fee rates to existing inquiries.

The new fee schedule of €213,098 per annum for a senior counsel, €176,000 for a solicitor and €142,065 for a junior counsel will come into effect from next Wednesday (September 1st) for all new tribunals and inquiries.

The new fees will be less than 40 per cent of the maximum current rates paid to lawyers working on tribunals and inquiries. The new rate will be introduced for the existing tribunals and inquiries at a later date to be set by the Government following communication with the various chairs.

The new fee structure for senior counsel appearing at tribunals is to be based on the current annual salary of a High Court judge, plus 15 per cent in respect of pension contribution.

The Government agreed to introduce the new fee structure in a bid to curb the spiralling bill for legal fees. "Assuming the award of third-party legal costs under on-going tribunals is in line with such awards made in completed tribunals, the legal costs to be met by the taxpayer for all tribunals and inquiries will be over €440 million by the end of the year", Mr McCreevy said after the Government announcement of the new structure last month.